


Bubble Fluff (Or, How Dean Winchester Likes Bubble Baths and Castiel Likes What Dean Likes)

by mahbbys



Series: Dean Winchester likes Bubble Baths [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: 10x11, Based on a Tumblr Post, Bathtubs, Bubble Bath, Canon Compliant, Canon Related, Castiel Has Stolen Grace, Castiel Texts, Castiel in the Bunker, Coda, Dean Bears The Mark of Cain, Dean Winchester really likes bubbles, Dorks, Ficlet, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, I Blame Tumblr, Mark of Cain, Men of Letters Bunker, No Sex, No Smut, Not Beta Read, Possibly Pre-Slash, Post-Canon, Season/Series 10, Spoilers, Timestamp, Unbeta'd, do you have any idea how hard it is to write fluff that also features the Mark of Cain?, do you?, mention of Claire Novak, spoilers but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-31
Updated: 2015-01-31
Packaged: 2018-03-09 19:13:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3261215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mahbbys/pseuds/mahbbys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm not saying I have to have a Jacuzzi; I'm just saying I really like bubbles."</p><p>Big, bad Dean Winchester likes bubble baths. (And kinda sorta maybe also likes Cas, too, but he isn't about to admit that yet.)</p><p>(coda/timestamp to ep 10x11)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bubble Fluff (Or, How Dean Winchester Likes Bubble Baths and Castiel Likes What Dean Likes)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [songflightgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/songflightgirl/gifts).



Dean rubbed his hands together gleefully, with an open-mouthed grin. He jerked his eyebrows upward as he licked his lips. Then he began slinging off layers in a rush, not caring where the clothes went. “Calgon,” he said, with a smirk, “take me away.”

 

Even now that he had a tub large enough to comfortably fit his frame, Dean normally took showers. It was more efficient. It fit better into the hunter lifestyle. But tonight he was treating himself. He’d been off the booze what felt like nearly as long as his time in hell had been. It wasn’t quite as, well, _hellish_ , obviously, but it wasn’t a damn picnic either.

 

Shit, he’d even tried eating that damn kale stuff again. He _deserved_ these bubbles.

 

And what bubbles they were. They passed over the rim of the tub by a solid two inches, at least. It was truly a thing of beauty. He’d used nearly an entire bottle of Mr. Bubble to do it - an item which had cost him more in dignity and self-respect than money - but it was a sight to behold.

 

Dean gingerly stepped into the tub, trying not to disturb too many of the suds while also checking for the temperature. He sighed and then slid his body fully into the soapy mass, enjoying the slide of the warm water mixed with the foamy texture of the slightly cooler bubbles.

 

Dean leaned back and could hear the tiny crinkling of the popping bubbles as the wall of suds went up and past his ears. He sank into it, letting out a sigh, and he could feel tension leak out of him. He was still not strung quite right, could still feel the Mark making its presence known, but it was more relaxed than he’d been in days.

 

He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing and the white noise of the bursting bubbles all around him.

 

He reopened his eyes halfway when he heard the sound of a faint knock at the door. His brows knit into a hard line.

 

“What?” he shouted at the door, tilting his head only slightly that direction.

 

Another knock. Dean closed his eyes and grimaced. That wasn’t Sammy’s knock. It had to be Cas. Of course, it had to be Cas. He debated getting out. He looked around, as if trying to find the best solution.

 

Fuck it.

 

“Yeah! Come in,” Dean shouted, already feeling that tense, taut feeling coming back into his body. All he wanted was a bubble bath. He whined a bit in his head as he heard Cas enter.

 

“Dean, I...” Cas stopped short as he came up within a couple of feet of the bathtub.

 

Cas blinked a few times, to which Dean raised his eyebrow. He was embarrassed, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let that be known. He was so covered in bubbles that only his face was visible to the angel.

 

Cas licked his lips, which made Dean’s gaze drop. And if his dick happened to twitch, well that was just his usual exhibitionism mixing with a lack of sex. A lack of self-love, too, since he was trying to be good. Dean coughed.

 

Cas looked away with a frown. “I...”

 

“What?” Dean barked, hoping the bubbles were covering where his skin was turning pink with that particular line of thinking.

 

“I apologize.” Cas looked back to Dean with more determination. “I didn’t mean to... _disturb_ you. I just needed your help with something. I don’t mean to interrupt, but it felt urgent and...” Cas sighed and looked around, exasperated. “I’m sorry, I can’t take you seriously while you’re...” Cas motioned with an open hand. He looked Dean in the eye again. “While you’re just a face in the bath.”

 

“A lot of humans take baths, Cas.” Dean tried to school his expression back from deer-in-headlights to something a little more himself.

 

Cas frowned and looked taken aback. “I know that. I...”

 

“ _Men_ take baths,” Dean said on a slight laugh, his voice higher than usual. “I mean there’s... uh. There was... Taft. Yeah! John Wayne. All _kinds_ of cowboys. I mean, really, historically speaking, real men have always taken baths, Cas,” Dean said emphatically.

 

Cas sighed and tilted his head, watching Dean.

 

Ok, being watched like that was not helping the dick situation that was grow - that was _happening -_ beneath the suds.

 

Dean licked his bottom lip, letting it pop back out from under his tongue with a soft ‘ _pleh’_ sound. He took a deep breath and sat up a little more in the tub, annoyed. “Look none of - I don’t - Th - Why are you _here_?” Dean asked, trying to get a hold of his thoughts, and motioning with his hands while tilting his head down to look into the white foam floating over him instead of at Cas.

 

Cas sat down across from him, on the counter edge. “I’ve received a message.”

 

Dean sat up a little straighter in the tub. Doing so made some suds move from the top of his head down past his ear and tickle his neck. He frowned a little. “From Heaven?”

 

“No, it’s...” Cas sighed and stopped looking him in the eye. “It’s a rather, well, _odd_ text message. From Claire.”

 

Dean steepled his hands together, the backs of them still white and shiny with soap bubbles. He pushed his index fingers against his pressed together lips. He fixed an intense, flat-lined gaze at Cas. His voice was low. “You interrupted my bath, because your meat suit’s daughter sent a text?”

 

Cas opened his mouth to speak, but Dean, rubbing a soapy hand along his brow line, cut him off. “I swear to God, Cas, if you’re about to say anything involving the word emoticons, you need to leave now.”

 

“I had hoped you could help me, Dean,” Cas replied. The tone was somewhere between hurt and petulant and it made Dean feel bad.

 

He eyed Cas for a moment. He pressed his tongue between his lips for a second and then sighed. “Yeah. All right.” He shook his head. “Just... Gimme 20 minutes, yeah?”

 

“Of course. I don’t really know that’s it’s anything more urgent than that. And it’s not your job to...”

 

“ _Cas,”_ Dean said fondly. “I said I’d help, man. Just...lemme relax a bit.”

 

Cas gave him that small, sweet little smile. “Of course. I’ll um...I’ll leave you to it.”

 

Cas stood and started to walk away, as Dean began to slide back against the porcelain. Cas stopped, though, and turned to look at Dean a bit sheepishly over his shoulder. “How - how do you get the bubbles that high?”

 

Dean smirked and raised an eyebrow. “You won’t tell Sammy?”

 

Cas shook his head.

 

“A bottle of Mr. Bubble.”

 

Cas gave Dean a tight half smile and then turned and left. Dean was left alone with his thoughts, but thankfully he also had his bubbles and the tinkling sound of them popping drowned out his own thinking.

 

\----

 

Dean was whistling as he sprayed the lettuce with water, washing the leaves. A noise in the bunker caught his attention and he stopped, lips still pouted out, and turned off the taps to listen.

 

“Dean!” Cas’ voice shouted from somewhere in the bunker. He’d come to stay with Sam and Dean for a few nights while they tried another track on researching the Mark of Cain.

 

Dean wiped his hands on his jeans with speed and grabbed the gun from his waistband. He was still a little shaky around weapons, and there shouldn’t be anything capable of getting into the bunker, but Cas had sounded almost frightened and that raised Dean’s hackles faster than anything.

 

He was in the hallway in a flash and he turned a corner to find a half-naked, wide-eyed ex-angel-but-still-kinda-angel standing three feet from him.

 

“What the hell, man?” Dean asked in a stage whisper.

 

Cas shook his head, looking as lost and unsure of himself as he had all those years ago in the brothel. He swallowed and shook his head. “I didn’t...I don’t know...”

 

Dean frowned hard and went, gun first, into the room Cas had obviously just departed.

 

The first thing that hit him was the overwhelming wall of smell. The entire room smelled so strongly of limes that it took his breath away. The next thing he noticed was the explosion of foam that had once been a bathtub. There was still water pouring into it and bubbles pouring out of it.

 

Dean’s mouth dropped open, his brows pushed together, and his head tilted to the side. “What tha...” He took a step back and cleared his throat. “ _Cas_...”

 

Dean looked over his right shoulder to see Cas creeping into the room, his hand on the door frame. Cas swallowed and looked timidly from the tub to Dean. Dean closed his eyes briefly and sighed before walking carefully over and turning the faucet to stem the flow of water and suds. He turned to face Cas. He lifted his hands in a questioning motion, one eyebrow raised and his mouth slightly parted.

 

Cas straightened and sniffed. “I may have misjudged how to properly make the bubbles.”

 

Dean nodded silently for a moment before looking away. “Ya _think_?” he asked, exasperated. His eyes lit on a bottle sitting on the counter. Then a bottle beside that. And another, lying on its side next to those. He licked his lips and put his gun away.

 

“Cas, what...” Dean took a deep, calming breath. He gave Cas a tight smile, and took all aggravated tone out of his voice. “What happened, man?”

 

Cas eyed him before stepping gingerly into the bathroom. “The store didn’t have any of that ‘Mr. Bubble’ stuff that you mentioned. I found these,” he said, nodding at the bright green bottles, “and they promised to be effective.”

 

“Okaaaay...” Dean rolled his shoulders and tried to loosen up his body language. “So...” He narrowed his eyes at the bottles and frowned. “Why did you use three?”

 

“I’m an angel, Dean.”

 

Dean eyes flicked up, but stayed narrowed and confused. “Yeah...”

 

“I can sense things you can’t even fathom, I can taste molecules, and I have witnessed more history than humans can even account for - I’ve fought in _celestial_ _wars_ , Dean.”

 

Dean pressed his lips together, trying not to smile, as he slid his hands into his pockets. This struck him as awfully familiar to his bath speech. He looked at Cas, trying not to let his eyes sparkle too much with humor. “The bubbles didn’t form fast enough, did they?”

 

Cas took a sudden step forward, excited. “They’re _very_ slow,” he agreed, with feeling. “I had poured the second bottle in before there was much reaction at all. And, well,” Cas’ eyes grew wide and he pushed his neck back so it wrinkled and doubled, “by the time I’d gotten to the third...” He held one hand out toward the tub as it that explained everything.

 

“I made a slight miscalculation,” he added.

 

Dean’s chest lifted and fell with a huffed, silent laugh and he smiled to one side of his face.

 

“I had assumed, based on my previous knowledge of human’s material possessions, that these bottles being so cheaply made and inferior to the Mr. Bubble, would also produce inferior bubbles.” Cas sighed. “I clearly still have much to learn.”

 

Dean laughed, his head tilted back. He looked at Cas, his eyes crinkling, and grinned. “Looks like, man.” Dean chuckled and shook his head. Then he rubbed his forehead and looked around at the mess. He laughed again. He looked at Cas and shook his head once more, taking a step forward. He clapped Cas on the shoulder as he passed and headed toward the door.

 

“Are you - how should I clean it up?”

 

Dean stopped in the doorway. “Enjoy your bath first. We’ll deal with it later.” He grinned at Cas again and walked down the hall, laughing to himself.

 

It was kind of nice knowing that even with everything going on - the Mark of Cain, Metatron, all of it - Dean could at least still take a bubble bath, could still drive his Impala around, and could still rely on Cas to make him laugh and forget about things for a while.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know. I look forward to your comments! I hope you liked it. It's hard to write fluff that works in canon for this show.


End file.
